"Leafing through the Bush legacy''
Date: Tuesday, August 13, 2002 @ 00:00:14 EDT
Topic: Guest Editorial
By Walter Brasch
Usually it takes years, even decades, for a political leader to develop his legacy. George W. Bush, over-achiever that he is, has done it in about 18 months. And there's still two and one-half years left for him to expand that legacy.
Bush, the semi-smart smirking statesman, has already told the Palestinians he didn't want them voting for Yasser Arafat to chair the PLO. He has botched discussions with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, and undoubtedly he has alienated or at least infuriated Secretary of State Colin Powell. Now he is planning to overthrow the government of another nation. Juveniles who don't really want to fight, yet want to make a statement will claim, "My father can beat up your father." In George W.'s case, his father couldn't finish off Saddam Hussein so the mantra now is, "I'll do what Daddy didn't." This is a pre-emptive invasion against a sovereign nation! The vice-president and the attorney general are too old to enlist, neither served in the military, yet both are salivating at the thought of the invasion. Does anyone else have a problem with the leader of one country deciding that Texas imperialistic cowboy vigilante justice is how we should be portraying America to the rest of the world? Ashcroft created a system in which suspects can be summarily identified as enemy combatants, held indefinitely without charges being filed, their names not released to the public, and their rights to attorneys abridged. His belief in secret tribunals is more a philosophy of King Henry VIII (and now America's George III) than Thomas Jefferson and James Madison. He also has whittled the USA Patriot Act to allow the government to violate numerous other civil rights.
A federal district court has finally ruled that the government was wrong to detain people and refuse to release their names. Even if the Department of Justice appeals, and all the appeals are denied, Ashcroft and Bush still have almost 10 months of freedom to violate the freedom of others.